What is Https Protocol and Do secure Sites Rank Better in Google?

By Hitesh Bhasin 

In simple words, HTTPS is HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure that channelizes secured and encrypted communication between two systems. – And yes secure sites rank better in Search Engine Result Pages.

So, all in all, Https is used for safe data transfer on the internet.

The transfer of data happens in an encrypted system which is based on the SSL or TSL.

Table of Contents

Protocols used in HTTPS-

• SSL- Secure Socket Layers
• TLS- Transport Layer Security

Two systems get a secure, private, and encrypted connection through these protocols.

The connection can be in between-

• Browser and Server
• Server and Server
• Client and Server

So, HTTPS uses the encrypted protocol so that the communications can happen without any vulnerability via the Internet, and there is no breach in the confidentiality of the data.

You can consider HTTPS as HTTP over SSL.

This is a system which allows the delivery of the data with the help of a secure connection and that security is granted by the SSL system. Therefore, it can be used for the transfer of personal and confidential data, so that no other user will be able to gain access to it anyway on the internet.

SSL certificate is also known as a digital certificate that offers the following advantages-

• Data Integrity
• Secure Communication
• Increase in SEO Ranking
• Privacy and Security
• Prepares you for the future of the web

The importance of the SSL certificate

It has been recorded that about 70% of the users of the internet have believed that the laws regarding the protection of the rights on the web are not good enough. That is one of the reasons why Google has been able to create some of the stringent rules so that privacy protection can be ensured.

The Google Search Marketing team always says that the security has been a top priority for them so that there can be no breach in the confidentiality in the data.

That is one of the reasons why HTTPS ranking has been ensured, and that is has been implemented in the best possible manner since the year 2014.

SSL Certificate and its impact on SEO

Since the declaration have been made, marketers all around the world have gone crazy because they want to know whether SSL certificate is really good for the SEO.

That is the reason why today we are going to talk about the kind of impacts that the SSL certificate has and why it is important to move your website to the https.

About 2% of the top 1 million websites have been able to use default https or SSL version. Only about 4% of the sites have been able to make the shift to the secure and encrypted https website.

So, as per the stats around 0.1% of the websites on the web are having the SSL certificate.

But now, as Google is going to be stricter when it comes to the ranking of HTTP websites, it is going to be more important to have an HTTPS.

Therefore, when it comes to SEO, you ought to understand the benefits of switching your website to HTTPS. For sure, it will be ranking good in Google Search Results.

To understand the significance of HTTPS in SEO, it is important here to know the point of views of Google about HTTPS website in more in-depth fashion-

Google’s take about HTTPS Website

In the year 2014, Google declared that it would give preference to secure sites.

So, since then, Google considers https entry system as a determining factor for the SEO. Google decided that https would be the encrypted system which will be recognized by the Search Ranking algorithms. So, as per Google, HTTPS offers the ‘lightweight’ ranking boost to the sites.

In the beginning, security was not considered as an important factor because the website was complete with high-quality content, but many of the webmasters were not happy about the fact and started transferring their sites to the transport layer security or the TLS.

Google declared that people should abide by some strategies and practices so that https implementation can be done and that is why we are mentioning some of the tips below-

Google Tips for the sites transitioning to HTTPS

• You need to choose the type of certificate which is single or multi-domain
• The certificate should be of 2048 BIT key length
• the text should be disallowed so that no tracking can be done of the https site
• The URL should be relevant for the content of the same domain
• All the pages should have correct indexation, and no Meta tags should be used

To let people understand the significance of the https protocol, Google first started using the secure mode on its own browser, which is known as Google Chrome.

Thereafter three specific symbols were added to the address bar in order to improve the degree of security of the website.

If you have any E-Commerce business, then SSL certificate is definitely something that you would like to have because it will induce the online banking system and it will comprise of several payment gateways. If you move from unsecured HTTP to https system then you will be able to enhance the page loading speed as well

What is the impact of https on your websites SEO?

In today’s time, security has become mandatory with the gradual passing over the years because now the website contains a lot of delicate information like payment gateways and bank data that should not be hacked by any user.

As for the current years, around 50% of all the results given in the first page of Google Search Results have the https protocol along with digital SSL certificate, so that the data on the content is absolutely protected against phishing. It is one of the major reasons why it is being considered mandatory to have https in some of the major websites.

July 2018 was the deadline given by Google for those websites that do have HTTPS.

From the year 2018, Google started to make this a mandatory step to opt for SSL for the sharing of private data on the Internet. That is the reason why it made the fact mandatory that all the websites in Chrome should have https.

Google Chrome has added a warning sign in the address bar when you are visiting a site with an SSL certificate. If the website has the proper encryption, then the https websites are marked with green color so that you can know that you are visiting a secure website.

Google started marking some of the websites ‘Not Secure’ in the address bars for the sites that do not have HTTPS. Even though there will be no negative impact while you are browsing the ‘Not Secure’ websites on Google Chrome, yet this implementation can cause a negative impact on the minds of site visitors.

This will, for sure decrease the Search Engine Ranking of your site.

SEO impact of migrating sites from HTTP to HTTPS

If you have taken the decision of taking the website to https encryption protocol, it might sound like a very simple process, but for a professional, a lot of intricacies need to be taken care of.

If the execution is not done correctly, then there can be some errors that can penalize your website in the search engines. Therefore, let us take a look at some of the actions that need to be done when you are migrating to https-

Key things to notice while switching from HTTP to HTTPS

• You need to update the sitemap and register the new domain on search console
• Adapting to the rel canonical tags
• Ensuring that each and every URL is responding with the code 200 as opposed to the codes 403 or 404
• You should analyze and check the URL that there is no duplicate content in between HTTP and HTTPS versions of a site

Final Thoughts

According to the statement given by Google, https migration will definitely help in the better positioning of the websites in the search engine and improve the ranking of the website.

But it is also true that if there is duplicate content or implementation is not being done in the proper manner, then the ranking can degrade which is the reason why you should take care while migrating to the https.